Fitbit Adds Support for Amazon Echo

On Thursday, Fitbit announced that users can now add a Fitbit skill for Alexa on Amazon's Echo devices.

With this new skill, Alexa can field your Fitbit questions. "[U]sers can add the new Fitbit skill for Alexa and use the prompt 'Alexa, ask Fitbit how I'm doing today,' along with several other supported health and fitness prompts," said Fitbit in a press release announcing the new Echo support. Alexa can understand several Fitbit-related requests for any day within the last week including sleep tracking results, how many active minutes you've logged, and more. In addition, this new Alexa skill offers words of encouragement and adjusts these responses based on the time of day. In the morning, Alexa might say, "you've got to start somewhere" or "try to take a walk today, but don't forget to stop and smell the roses."

This is not the first time Fitbit has reached outside of the fitness realm to boost its wearables. Fitbit also works with Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana. With Cortana, Fitbit users can use voice commands to log their food intake, but this support was not added to Alexa's new skill. "Working with Amazon and Alexa to create this new skill provides a completely new and fun way for Fitbit users to stay on top of their health and fitness goals," said Tim Roberts, Executive Vice President, Interactive at Fitbit on the new Alexa skill. "As we look at how this integration could evolve in the future, there is an endless world of possibilities from fitness coaching and nutrition tips, to guidance before bedtime to help you get a more restful night's sleep."